July Rain

July rain in San Francisco is not fun. July rain in Utah IS fun! It rains really hard, lasts only for a couple minutes, and it's still nice and warm outside. Perfect.

Nanny Visits

Everything is backwards this weekend. Grandma and Grandpa are in Arizona visiting Andy and Bri and Nanny is here in Utah! We had so much fun meeting up with Nanny, Ashley, and Gage for a little Hire's, McD's, and Sweet Tooth Fairy. I already knew Hire's and McD's were mighty tasty, but WOW--Sweet Tooth Fairy is SUPER tasty. Max and Jack loved licking the icing off their cupcakes. Well, Max liked licking the frosting off everyone else's cupcakes since he didn't like the green cupcake he chose--a very sour key lime. Thanks for the visit Nanny!

Duck, Duck, GOOSE!

Max and Jack love playing Duck, Duck, Goose. Except, the only time you hear them say "duck, duck, goose" is when they ask if you want to play. After that, you never know what you're going to hear. I love listening to all the silly things they think up.

From Max:
Hamburger (except he says hagumber), hamburger, hamburger, HOTDOG!
Airplane, airplane, airplane, HELICOPTER!
Long hair, long hair, long hair, LITTLE HAIR!
Baby Gus, Baby Gus, Baby Gus, DADDY BLAKE!
And my favorite: for those hard of hearing he tickles your head, tickles your head, tickles your head, SCRATCHES YOUR HEAD!

With Jack, he doesn't change the last word, he just yells it a little louder and hits your head a little harder:
Elephant, elephant, elephant, ELEPHANT!
Binoculars, binoculars, binoculars, BINOCULARS!
Pink airplane, pink airplane, pink airplane, PINK AIRPLANE!

These two boys are so lucky to have so many people around here willing to play their favorite games with them. Usually Grandma and Dawna are also playing games with them and even Great Myrtice has been known to join in. I love this family--the same family who played "I had a little doggy..." with a little Addi. Except now they've gotten smart enough to use chairs instead of sit on the floor.
Today Gage and Janay came up to play with us and got in on some of the duck, duck, goose fun. Gage was even nice enough to rough up Max and play dinosaurs with Jack. And poor Janay was the victim of a squirt bottle. Gage was too, but he deserved it. :) I really, really love my family.

Museum of Church History and Art

When my mom's friend Nancy invited us to go check out this museum downtown, I was really excited. When I saw the museum was actually the church art and history museum, I was not so excited. I was sure it was going to be a nightmare and we would break some important piece of history, especially since Jack was in his finest Jack form. Well, I WAS WRONG! This museum is so much fun and actually, I'm a little upset (especially at you, Ashley!) that I'd never heard of it or been before. I didn't look around downstairs very much, but the "I Am a Child of God" exhibit upstairs is fabulous! We spent about two hours there and could have stayed longer.

Everyone is a child of God...even the stinkers...

Max giving his first conference talk
Walking the straight and narrow path and building a stained glass window for the temple

Traveling back in time to Bethlehem
Partaking of the fruit from the tree of life and putting together the large scripture trivia/fun facts puzzle

Other activities included designing and building temple spires, a hospital complete with doctor kits and newborn babies, CTR rubs in several different languages (Ash, we did one in sign language for you--no hard feelings), driving your car from your home to church or the temple, and lots and lots of fun books. If you're like me and have never been, hurry, hurry! The exhibit closes September 2010!

Daddy Comes

Blake came for a quick, quick visit this weekend and we could not get enough of him. We stayed home the less than 48 hours he was here and showered him with kisses and hugs (and tickles and wet willies and tackles and head bumps). Everything's better when Daddy's around.

My Boy

I've finally found someone in my little family who loves Taco Time's crispy bean burritos as much as I do. Or at least someone who is on his way to loving them as much as I do. We'll see if he chooses Taco Time over anything else for his birthday dinners.
I'm so excited for dates with this little guy.

Swim Lessons...FINALLY!

Today was the first day of swim lessons; although, I'm still trying to convince Max that he actually needs lessons since he keeps telling me he already knows how to swim. And he sure did do a good job showing his teacher how he can "swim" by going under the water and kicking around every chance he got. I didn't get to take any pictures of the actual swimming because I am so lucky and get to be in the water with Jack, but I did take these before and after pictures. I see a lot of these monstrous snow-cones in our future.

4th Weekend

We decided to help Andy and Bri move down to hot, hot AZ to celebrate our independence. And when I say "help" I mostly mean, run up and down the ramp of the U-haul and in general, try to stay out of the way.

So after a very, very fun drive, when we finally arrived in Arizona, we got to stay way, way out of the mover's way, celebrating the 4th at...Nanny's house! Nanny made a yummy flag cake and the kids got to blow out candles after we sang Happy Birthday to America.
Jack was a little upset that he wasn't the only one who got to blow out a candle and he did a good job letting everyone know he was upset.
Then, for the first time ever, we got to participate in the annual family fourth festivities. Grandma, Grandpa, Andy, Bri and Dawna even got to come along. The boys had so much fun. Max went on the big blow up slide a bajillion times and Jack gave the baseball game one try before focusing all his energy on the treats.

Then we saw some beautiful fireworks. A couple fireworks in, Jack decided they were too loud so he sat on my lap while I covered his ears. Max loved them, yelling out to someone whenever he saw their favorite color of firework. "Hey, Mom, there's a pink one!" Until he just stopped. He was dead asleep. What a silly boy!
We got home super late and then woke up super early this morning to drive back to Utah. Thank you, thank you Nanny and Grandpa for making our fourth so fun. We are so thankful for America and we are so thankful for our family.

These pictures make my heart hurt...

Where are all the toys, the missing door knobs, stacks of papers, pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge, and little boys sitting in the windows? It's not my house anymore.

{But I am happy Blake now has a bed to sleep on rather than sleeping on the floor.}

Roughed Up

I can tell Max and Jack are missing their dad because they really, really need to be roughed up. If anyone shows a sign of being willing to rough them up, the boys turn it up a notch and start jumping on, chasing around, and wrestling with this very lucky person. Tonight it was Geri and Tony. Geri threw them around for a while and then when Tony got home he took over. Look at the air!
Hurry and come visit us Blake! We miss you!